COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF MICROCOMPOSITE AND MACRO-COMPOSITE CONDUCTORSFOR PULSE MAGNETS

The purpose of this analysis is to have a powerful but simple to use c omputing tool that can help characterize the thermal vs, mechanical pe rformance of conductors, The analysis covers thermal diffusion, eddy c urrent heating, and magneto-resistance in both micro composite and mac ro composite conductors. In micro composites such as CuAg, CuNb or a c opper matrix reinforced with steel filaments, the reinforcement is dis tributed on a small scale and thus both reinforcement and matrix can b e assumed to track the same temperature during the pulse, In a macro-c omposite conductor such as a jacketed stainless steel copper, the stee l temperature will lag the copper temperature significantly during a s hort pulse due to the finite diffusivity time, As a result, the first detailed examination of the use of copper stainless steel, CuSS macro- composite conductors fi pulse magnets has been performed. The material has shown promising indications of superior mechanical and thermal pe rformance when compared to the more expensive conductors CuAg and CuNb [1]-[3].